House would choose president if Bush, Kerry get 269 electoral votes BY CORKY SIEMASZKO NEW YORK - (KRT) - How does a Bush-Edwards White House sound? It could happen if President Bush and John Kerry wind up tied with 269 electoral votes apiece. "There has never been a tie," said Walter Berns, an expert on the Electoral College at the American Enterprise Institute. "But if there is, the new House would pick the president in January. The new Senate would pick the vice president." Republicans are expected to keep control of the House and would select Bush. But the Senate is up for grabs, and imagining a scenario with the Democrats winning, Edwards could become his veep, said Berns. "This year, that scenario is not that far-fetched," said Larry Sabato, who heads the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. In the House, each state gets a single vote determined by its delegations. And the first candidate to win the vote of 26 state delegations wins the presidency. So if the voting goes along party lines, Bush would be guaranteed a victory because there are 30 GOP delegations, 16 Democratic delegations and four deadlocked delegations. And if, by some weird twist, the House was unable to pick a President, the Senate's choice for veep would be an interim president. President Edwards anyone? What a nightmare scenario.
Was it any worse in the old days when the election winner got the presidency and the loser got the VeeP? Sounds just as nightmarish.
Oh could you imagine? Bush with absolutley nothing to say because lil Richard isn't there to whisper in his ear, with Edwards sitting in the back with a smug bastard smile just planted across his charming lawyer face, not saying a word, loving every minute of it? It'd be worth the chaos just to see that.
It looks like the Senate is breaking GOP, so this scenario won't play out. Shame, the Reeps had a bunch of lemons as Senate candidates this year - Coburn, Bunning - yeesh.
This could be as fun as (I presume it was) when Jefferson was VP to the Federalist Adams. Substitute "Patriot Act" for "Alien and Sedition Acts" as one of the big sticking points between Pres and VP.